Reading and Writing Portfolio 10

Reading letters asking for advice

Writing pronouns and possessive
The advice page adjectives; a letter of advice
Review should/shouldn’t; Why don’t you … ?
1 Read letters A–C. Then choose the correct answers.

1 Jasper broke his leg in a car accident /doing sport.

2

3
He stayed at home/in hospital for four months.
He can/can’t cycle very fast. Ask
4

5
He doesn’t like watching/doing sport.
Adam is Olivia’s/Samantha’s boyfriend.
Angela
6 Last night Adam was in a restaurant with Olivia’s sister/ If you’ve got problems,
Angela Armstrong is here to help.
A
a woman he works with.
7 They left the restaurant at different times/together.
8 Olivia told/didn’t tell her sister about what happened.
A Four months ago I was in a car accident and I
broke my leg very badly. It’s OK now, but I’m
9 Maria is Yvonne’s daughter/friend.
quite overweight at the moment because I spent
10 Rick has/hasn’t got a job. four months just sitting at home. My wife says I
11 He likes/doesn’t like putting Maria to bed. should lose about ten kilos and I agree with her.
Last weekend we went cycling with our friends,
12 He always/sometimes goes out on Saturday night.
but they were all faster than me and I lost
them! And I really hate doing sport – it’s really
HELP WITH WRITING boring! I want to lose weight without doing any
Pronouns and possessive adjectives exercise. Can you give me some advice?
Jasper, Northampton
2 a Look at the words in bold in letter A. Write them in
the table.
B 1I’ve got a big problem with 2my sister,
subject object possessive Samantha. Last night I saw 3her boyfriend,
pronouns pronouns adjectives
Adam, in a restaurant with another woman. Her
1 I 6 9 name is Jodie and 4she works in 5his office.
2 6They both looked very happy and 7he left the
you your
He him his restaurant with her, arm in arm. I didn’t call my
She 7 her
sister because I didn’t want to hurt 8her. Now
3
I don’t know what to do. Should I tell her I saw
it its 9them together, or should I talk to Adam first?
4 us 10
What do 10you think I should do?
5 8 their
Olivia, Brighton
b Look at these sentences. Then complete these
rules with before and after.
I broke my leg four months ago.
3 Read letter B again. Which people do the words in
She saw them in a restaurant.
bold 1–10 refer to?
● Subject pronouns come verbs.
1 Olivia 6
● Object pronouns come verbs.
2 7
● Possessive adjectives come nouns.
3 8
TIP • Notice the difference between it’s and its.
4 9
It’s OK now. (it’s = it is)
What’s its name? (its = possessive adjective) 5 10

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 5 Read letter C again. Then read Angela’s answer to
C I’m married and we’ve got a new baby, Maria.
She’s our first child and she’s only two months
old. The problem is that my husband, Rick, never
helps me with our daughter. He works very
hard, I know, but when he gets home from work
he just watches TV and waits for his dinner.
When I ask him to put Maria to bed, he always
says that he’s too tired. But he goes out with his
friends every Saturday night – he’s never too
tired for them! Can you help me?
Yvonne, Manchester
Have you got a problem?
Email me at askangela@mylife.co.uk
4 Read Angela’s answer to Olivia. Change the words in
bold to the correct pronoun or possessive adjective.
6 a Read letter A again. Think of five things Jasper
Dear Olivia
he
I think you should ask Adam why 1Adam was in
the restaurant with Jodie. You said 2the restaurant
was near 3Jodie and Adam’s office, so maybe
4Jodie wanted to talk to 5Adam about work.
Maybe it was 6Jodie’s birthday – or 7Jodie and
Adam might just be friends. Just because you
saw 8Jodie and Adam together, it doesn’t mean
9Adam
is going out with 10Jodie. Why don’t
you talk to Adam and get 11Adam’s side of the
story before you talk to your sister? Then you can
help 12Samantha if there’s something wrong in
13Samantha’s relationship with Adam.
Angela
Yvonne. Choose the correct words.
Dear Yvonne
Life is often difficult for married couples when
1 they /them have 2them/their first child. Why
don’t 3you/your talk to 4you/your husband
and tell 5his/him how 6you/your feel? You say
that 7he/him works hard, but Maria’s 8him/his
baby too. 9You/Your daughter needs to spend
time with 10she/her father – it’s important for
babies to have both parents in 11their/them
lives. Tonight why don’t you both put Maria to
bed? You also say Rick goes out with 12him/his
friends every Saturday – maybe you can go out
with 13you/your friends on Fridays and 14he/his
can be with 15him/his daughter.
Angela
should do to lose weight and why he should do them.
Make notes in the table.
advice reason why
eat more salads they’re low in fat
b Imagine you are Angela. Write your advice to
Jasper.
● Use your notes from the table in 6a.
● Use pronouns and possessive adjectives.
● Use You should … , You shouldn’t … and
Why don’t you … ? to give advice.
● Read and check for mistakes.
● Give your advice to your teacher next class.
Tick the things you can do in English in the
Reading and Writing Progress Portfolio, p88.
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